The BIG Environmental Impact of This Sustainable Community Food Project

A Mini Community Food Project With BIG Environmental Benefits
Food forests are unique permaculture forest ecosystems with an abundance of edible plants and trees. These spaces improve biodiversity, carbon swquestration, climate change mitigation, habitat fragmentation, and offer educational and mental health benefits. These are also important projects for food security and food sovereignty and offer an alternative to traditional agriculture in some cases
Learn more about food forests and the Oakville food forest in this video!
Part 1 of the Small Scale Big Impact Series: • This Unique Forest has...
Part 2 of the Small Scale Big Impact Series: • Creating Mini Habitats...
Resources:
Halton Food: haltonenvironet.ca/halton-food/
Food Forest Info: www.permaculturenews.org/2011...
Permaculture info: permacultureprinciples.com/pe...
Case study from Seattle: digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/cg...
Permaculture review paper: link.springer.com/article/10....
Please visit my website to get more information: davidbysouth.com
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#climatechange #travelvlog #hike #conservation #environment #biodiversity #ecosystem #agriculture #carbon #food #forest #foodforest #sustainability
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© David Bysouth

[@DeathsGarden-oz9gg]

We need more of this but with more native edible foods. Or just new and fun ones like breadfruit or soap apple use for well soap

[@Debbie-henri]

Nice to see a new channel highlighting permaculture. The more places we permaculturists can trade hints and tips the better for all concerned. Anyone still thinking of starting in permaculture must realise that it's now time to stop procrastinating and begin your project in earnest. Food plant prices 'are' going up. Seed prices have gone up significantly. (I've never seen such an increase in seed prices as I have over the past 12 months. A sign of economic stress for merchants trying to find successful sources of seed?) Could I just point out something with regard to the new permaculture project being worked in the video? I notice that plastic is being used as a mulch. That is something I did right at the beginning of my own project. However, the problem with plastic is, it is constantly shedding micro and nanoplastic particles onto the soil. I know soil is being contaminated by plastic from outside sources, but we don't really want to add to this worsening issue. Animals burrow and shred plastic, small rodents tearing bits off to line burrows. Storm winds can catch hold of it and, before you know it, you're spending a whole day picking shreds of ripped plastic out of your gooseberry bushes. Worse still, sheets might blow away onto other land where it won't be collected, or perhaps onto passing cars. I have never stopped picking up or digging up tiny shreds of plastic since I made the mistake of using it as mulch. Instead of plastic, I use brown cardboard boxes, which I pick up for free in small supply from shops when I go for my weekly grocery shop. Shopkeepers are only too happy to give them away (since they have to pay hundreds of pounds in the UK to have trade refuse collected, and I don't doubt it's the same in America and elsewhere). Cardboard can be weighted down (by using those old bits of brick or large stones you 'thought' you had no use for. Take it from me, unless you have a stupid amount of stones and bricks, keep them piled somewhere. You will need them eventually). Ensure the boxes are as plain as possible. That cheap brown card only, black print is fine. Don't use prints of other colours. You can use natural materials to disguise the brown cardboard. Most people use woodchips, but I won't use that stuff. For starters, it isn't cheap where I live. It certainly doesn't come free. There's a possibility of introducing serious diseases and fungal problems (like Honey Fungus). Also, a real forest floor isn't covered in wood chips. It's covered in leaves, perhaps a few pine cones, pine needles, some twigs, a few rotting branches, and inly a relatively small amount of bark. Where I have cardboard down, I mimic that mixture as best I can, adding kitchen scraps to the mix, but always making sure the latter is covered in a presentable layer of dead leaves. The card boxes don't last long, a couple of months in my climate. So it's more labour intensive, unless you have the means to put down several layers of card at once. That will last longer They rot down to add a very nice texture to the soil. Great for clay, chalk or pale soils. (My soil was originally quite yellowish in colour, but now it is a good mid to deep brown in many places, due to long term use of different natural mulching materials in alliance with boxes). Another valuable lesson I learned the hard way was a need for a 'quiet corner' for wildlife. Trying to integrate them over the whole area doesn't quite work as well as having 'wildlife only' zones. This corner has several brash heaps of different sizes, where I stack prunings, twigs, leaves, dried out brambles, or specially collected branches with fungi I specifically want to introduce to my garden. These brash heaps rot down to compost in time, but before they get there they are havens for wildlife - nesting birds, frogs, newts, lizards, all manner of beetles and other insects. This quiet zone also has a number of fruit bearing plants that are for wildlife only. I absolutely leave these plants alone at harvest time and wildlife will frequent those more than the ones nearer human activity. (Use Elderberries, Rowans, Blackberries and Raspberries). Bring in a pond. I have miniponds all around the garden, most with piles of stones or branches next to them where amphibians can shelter. I'm currently in the midst of building a larger pond in a part of the garden that doesn't have one. Unlike many schemes, I do not seek to kill off all the grasses and never mow what grass I have either. I know it's an issue in areas where there is a problem with Lyme's disease, and I don't blame snyone for tackling it (having pulled out a couple of ticks from myself, I know how painful that is and how nerve-wracking it is to await possible symptoms. No fun at all). But I take the chance because leaving grass to do its own thing allows wild flowers to quietly come in through more wildlife interaction with the land. Wild flowers bring in more pollinators and, more importantly, predatory insects. I had an awful problem with a type of weevil at one time. Had to go out daily and pick over several plants that were infested. Then a weird type of large black fly came along, hanging around some new plants at the top of the hill - and the weevils are well under control now. Well, I wish you luck with both your channel and updates on this new permaculture project. Will be good to see how it progresses.

[@DavidBysouth]

Thanks for sharing all this great information and from your experience with permaculture. It's great to hear from folks like yourself who have a lot of experience in this area! Thanks for watching!

[@comradenoworries1771]

Great video, love the permaculture movement and the indigenous history that is involved in it. Loved the showing of local locations. Keep up the work :)

[@DavidBysouth]

Thanks so much for the amazing feedback! I really appreciate it. Thanks for watching!

[@storyhubcorner7190]

Great video

[@DavidBysouth]

Thanks! Appreciate you watching as always!

[@storyhubcorner7190]

@@DavidBysouth can you give me chance to edit your video?

[@DavidBysouth]

Feel feee to message me

[@storyhubcorner7190]

@@DavidBysouth on which platform?

[@DavidBysouth]

Instagram or email works. Email is on my KZbin page

[@artbyadrienne6812]

Food forests are great! I started one about 5 years ago and now have fruit filled trees. Still eating peaches that I froze from last year. 🌳🍑

[@DavidBysouth]

That’s awesome! Glad it’s working out for you! What other kinds of things did you plant in your food forest?

[@artbyadrienne6812]

@@DavidBysouth My over story trees are Cottonwoods. I tried growing blueberries, blackberries and raspberries here but the soil is too alkaline. Last year I planted Goji berries and they love it. Their roots spread aggressively underground and will be my understory for the fruit trees.

[@DavidBysouth]

Sounds like a really great project and I hope you keep seeing all kinds of amazing progress with your food forest!

[@SeekingBeautifulDesign]

Thanks for the video. I applaud you publicizing permaculture/food forests/perennial agriculture for those not familiar. However, given you have PhD, some time for video editing and a desire to put out clear and accurate, perhaps in future videos you could keep the more subtle aspects of your videos consistent: - when dialogue mentions permaculture food mostly you show annual agriculture shots (granted these are much more available to scrape on the web). Annual agriculture has a small part to play in food forests, but doesn't fit as well as perennials - when dialogue mentions renewable energy, you show a solar farm over baked soil. Agrivoltaics (solar panels at least over grass, and even better over shade loving crops and/or grazing land) is pretty obviously a more permaculture approach. Granted some places only have baked soil, but expecting people new to this area to understand this subtlety means they aren't new. - a worldwide "criticism" of permaculture is that it looks messy in the beginning and in maturity (per what people are used to). Rightly or wrongly, this idea exists. You called out how the food forest plot didn't look like much. So, perhaps use footage of mature food forests from around the world. The viewers only experience from your video likely looks like a mess to their sensibilities. You can counter this with more balanced footage (not just the negative side). - Biophilia is a big aspect human health for which research has blossomed in the last decade. You did mention some human health benefits in passing. Walking through a food forest vs a field of corn might have been a bigger emphasis. - When trying to build credibility in presenting a new concept, don't have spelling mistakes in your text. Much harder to take you seriously especially given the PhD mention. - You mentioned food sovereignty in text, but really didn't explore this. For anyone experienced in the field it's obvious, but to viewers new to the idea I'm not sure that your video helps especially given the promotional text. - You mentioned habitat sequestration, but the food forest is a small plot surrounded by what appears to be mown grass. Of course it's a start, but maybe mentioning the further work needed to actually connect that habitat to others. Unfortunately, if I looked at this as someone new to the concept and only used your video, I'd see permaculture as a good concept supported by poor reasoning and poor implementation. Not what you were going for I'm sure, but I'd rather not have people turned away from permaculture. Maybe check out Geoff Lawton or the channel Canadian Permaculture Legacy (lives a short drive from you). They do a decent job of presenting concepts with backup and context. Sorry for the lack of happy talk.

[@Rodickjose]

We’re tryna turn a little piece of land on the pavement of a busy road into a little permaculture garden , anyone experienced ,pls do help

[@dustinabc]

Here is a BIGGER PROBLEM than climate change (and not coincidentally the largest contributor to it) (and also the reason why industrial agriculture has become a problem): authoritarian governments and states. Want sustainable, natural, and moral government? Learn about #VOLUNTARYISM and the #NonAggressionPrinciple.

[@Debbie-henri]

I'm not sure anyone is going to have a 'moral' government any time soon. I live in the UK, and it is as bad here as it is over there. The focus is on economics, and how the government can manipulate the system to benefit those who run the system. It's been like that since around the mid-1970's. We have been witness to catastrophic change in Britain, and very little of it to the benefit of actual Brits. But we're probably not going to change that soon, no matter where we live in the world, because big industry is working it's way more and more into politics - and the only way anyone can make a stand against it is to live in a way that's at least partially removed from it, everyone trying their very best to reduce the profits we keep putting into the pockets of these massive industries (and hence, their political puppets). So, if that means carefully considering how you spend 'any' of your money, that's the way to go - energy, food, travel, clothing, technology. But most people are neither healthy in body or mind, going in any direction advertisers point them, buying stuff they don't need because a flashy ad tells them to, ending up sick and just taking the medication as prescribed. I have a number of friends that are now diabetic. They don't try to research why, how or what they can do to reverse the condition. They don't listen to anything we tell them about new research. They take the meds and carry on. Our National Health Service still advises an out of date diet, while a couple of terrestrial TV stations have just started to look into the problem of certain foods and the link to rapidly increasing obesity, dementia and diabetes. But most people just watch the programmes, switch over, forget, move on, and then fall victim to the very next fast foods advertisement... Addicts. It makes you realise that governments don't want to stop this. Think of the gains. Someone works for 40 years. The food they eat is bad, but not instantly bad. It takes decades for symptoms to show up. Give them cheap meds that do no more than treat the symptoms but not the cause. These people are dead either before, at or shortly after retirement age. That means less stress on the state pension system. They don't want you living until you're 90 or 100. You're a burden on the system. The processed food system is a good way to shake you off. Slow poison made with addictive substances to keep you buying and dying.

[@fionamason4725]

Great video, love this content, especially locally! 🌳

[@DavidBysouth]

Really appreciate your comment! Thanks for watching!

[@GrassrootsGardeningAshford]

I’m establishing a food forest in my own community, starting with an established orchard and working from there. Documenting it here: kzbin.info/aero/PLqLbiZobZZj-2hVCpQgMt_VskxkWKiR3Y&si=L7pSRMCgvRXAdce6

[@DavidBysouth]

Thanks for sharing your project!